What's in a name?
A lot, really--especially if you are a Hindu south-Indian. In my last few minutes at the office, I had my friend Vinay Kumar, or so I thought his name was, write his contact info in my book. He wrote, “V.S. Vinay Kumar”.

“What’s with the V.S?,” I asked. Drawing a deep breath of someone preparing to tell a story that has been told many times, Vinay explained the origin of his name.

The story of V.S Vinay Kumar, as recorded on ‘voice memo’ on my Canon digital elph camera:

“Ok, so my full name is Vutukuru Venkata Seshapavana Vinay Kumar. Vutukuru is my family name. Actually, when my parents got down to deciding upon what my name should be, my mother had a wish, my father had a wish, my grandmother had a wish. My father wanted the name Venkata, my mother wanted the name Sesha because she loves lord Shesa…and my father had great regard for lord Balaji. My grandmother likes lord Hanuman so she wanted the name Pavan inside it. But my grandmother and my grandfather wanted a vedic scholar to actully do the needsome, so on the actual day when the ceremony took place, the vedic scholar came and, actually, nobody had the guts to question his wisdom. He looked at me and he wrote the name Vinay Kumar. And because everbody’s wish had to be satisfied, so then he said, ‘Okay, everybody should tell their name and he would write the whole name,’ and the whole name eventually turned out to be Vutukuru Venkata Seshapavana Vinay Kumar."

So the next time you meet a Nahasapeetapetilon, show some respect--you may be addressing someone named after the gods.
- posted by aziz @ 5:07 a.m.